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I started this blog back in July 2002, so that my musings on what I’d been reading would have their own place on the web to live. That was far enough back I didn’t originally include any pictures on the site, because load times really mattered.

I read Life of Pi that summer. Over time, I could tell when students were assigned books I happened to read, because I’d get desperate pleas in the comments for help with reports. I received a few comments from authors (always a thrill) and even became a blurb on the back of Peanutbutter and Jeremy’s Best Book Ever, which was awesome.

Looking back over the list of more than 450 posts, I can see how my reading changes over time. Ten or twelve years ago I was reading a lot of graphic novels; now I’m reading poetry.

Blogrolls used to be a thing, it was an important way we liked-minded geeks could find each other. Over the years, mine kept getting shorter and shorter as the book blogs I followed stopped.

Now seems like a good time to recognize this one is stopping, too.

I’m still reading, and I expect posts about that will be part of whatever I do next online. I will keep this site up as an archive. Until the next thing starts up, you can reach me on twitter or over at LibraryThing.

Do I need Mary Oliver to tell me that “only if there are angels in your head will you / ever, possibly, see one”? The answer is yes, I will appreciate it if she does, in the closing lines of “The World I Live In”.

Whether she is writing about embracing aging (“Cobb Creek”), letting go of possessions (“Storage”), falling in love (“I Didn’t Think, Let’s Go About This Slowly”) or being grateful for having love in your life (“The Gift”) she offers poems full of wisdom, but that don’t take themselves too seriously. To underscore that last point:

Humility

Poems arrive ready to begin.
Poets are the only transportation.

—

I am not sure how much more there is to say about her latest book; if you enjoy her work you will enjoy this, and if you don’t, well, this isn’t a radical departure so it isn’t likely to move you. I’m glad I read it and will no doubt return to it.